Rielle Hunter's pal spills beans on John Edwards' affair. And the baby!

According to an interview on CBS News "The Early Show" with Pigeon O'Brien, a former friend of Rielle Hunter, Hunter and John Edwards' extramarital affair started waaaaay before Edwards said it did.

And that's just the beginning.

According to O'Brien, the affair began in early 2006, months before Edwards has acknowledged.

Co-host Maggie Rodriguez asked O'Brien many questions, including how "forthcoming'' Edwards been about his affair with Hunter.  O'Brien also said Edwards is the father of Hunter's daughter, which Edwards has staunchly denied. (Repeat after me, "I did not father a child with that woman!")

Here is the entire transcript of the show that aired this morning. And it's juicy.

DATE August 12, 2008                  
     TIME 7:00-9:00 AM
     NETWORK CBS
     PROGRAM The Early Show

MAGGIE RODRIGUEZ, co-host:

Just how forthcoming has John Edwards been about his affair with Rielle
Hunter, a videographer hired by his campaign? Edwards claims it was a brief
liaison, but that's not how a friend of Hunter's remembers it. Joining us
this morning is Pigeon O'Brien.

Good morning to you, Pigeon.

Ms. PIGEON O'BRIEN (Friend of Rielle Hunter): Good morning.

RODRIGUEZ: Is John Edwards still lying about his affair with your friend?

Ms. O'BRIEN: As of--as of his statement on Friday evening, he is lying about
the timeline of the affair and other details about it, yes.

RODRIGUEZ: She told you it started in February or March of 2006.

Ms. O'BRIEN: Yes.

RODRIGUEZ: He says it started five months later when his campaign hired her.

Ms. O'BRIEN: Yeah, that's not true. That's not true. It started in the
winter of '06. They became involved at that point, not later in the summer
when she was hired to work for the political action committee.

RODRIGUEZ: It started in the winter of '06?

Ms. O'BRIEN: Correct.

RODRIGUEZ: Because that's when he was announcing his candidacy. And as we
see in these picture she's still working for him at the time, even though he
says this is when the affair was winding down.

Ms. O'BRIEN: It started at the other end of '06, in February, March of '06.

RODRIGUEZ: Oh, at the beginning.

Ms. O'BRIEN: Yes, yes, yes.

RODRIGUEZ: Oh, OK.

Ms. O'BRIEN: At the very -- six months earlier than he says that it began.

RODRIGUEZ: So when you looked at those pictures earlier with me, you said
"poor thing" about Rielle. Why?

Keep reading, it gets so much better. Or worse, depending on your point of view.

Ms. O'BRIEN: I -- she's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful person in a very
ugly position, and I really feel for her. I think that -- I really have never
known someone so insistent upon integrity and honesty and openness. It's one
of the most beautiful things about her. There are many beautiful things about
her.

RODRIGUEZ: But someone who has an affair with a married man you say has
integrity and honesty?

Ms. O'BRIEN: I think she thought that he had quite a bit of integrity and I
think that that appealed to her about him. Sometimes we make mistakes,
sometimes we pick people to fall in love with that maybe aren't the greatest
choice at the time. I can't judge her in that, I can't fault her in that.
She fell in love, and she felt loved back by this man. So unfortunately, that
doesn't reflect the kind of integrity that everybody might think reflects
integrity, but I'm sure she was able to deal with it and really be persuaded
by her feelings of love for this man.

RODRIGUEZ: So for her this was about love. ...

Ms. O'BRIEN: Yes, very much so.

RODRIGUEZ: ...not sex.

Ms. O'BRIEN: No. No, no, no, no, no. No, no.

RODRIGUEZ: Did she describe this as hot and heavy, frequent visits, intense,
passionate?

Ms. O'BRIEN: Yes, yes. And intense intellectually as well. She's a very
keenly intellectually engaged woman. She's very insistent upon rigorous
dialogue, and she's very interested in what makes people tick. She very -- digs
very deeply about those things. So they would have connected, and they did
connect on that level as well, as human beings and as souls. They connected
very deeply on that level.

RODRIGUEZ: You say that she told you about the night that she met him at a
bar.

Ms. O'BRIEN: Mm-hmm.

RODRIGUEZ: Did she describe it as, "I'm so excited to kick off this affair
with this married man," or was she ever...

Ms. O'BRIEN: NO.

RODRIGUEZ: ...battling her conscience, like, "I met this great guy, but he's
married"?

Ms. O'BRIEN: I don't suppose we ever went into things on the conscience
level. It wasn't for me to judge, and she didn't want to put me in a position
to judge her. We were girlfriends, we trusted one another's decisions.

RODRIGUEZ: But as she embarked on this affair, did she even think twice about
it?

Ms. O'BRIEN: She may have. I don't recall a conversation where that came up
with us, specifically. There were difficulties, and she was very conflicted as
the affair went on about aspects of it. We didn't really drill too deeply
into those. I supported her.

RODRIGUEZ: Mm-hmm.

Ms. O'BRIEN: And ...

RODRIGUEZ: But you say that you guys lost touch when the affair got hot and
heavy. Why?

Ms. O'BRIEN: Yes. Well, she was very involved then and I think beginning to
work for his campaign. We lost touch in about May or June of '06, right
before she began work on the Webisodes. I think she was gearing up to really
engage in the big piece of work that she was doing for him, so her head was in
a different space from the things we had been doing together. And I think she
was transitioning her friendship and focusing more on him as a central person
in her life, and maybe putting some of her other relationships on the
sideline.

RODRIGUEZ: She's been portrayed as this fatal attraction-like woman who was
semi-stalking him, madly in love, delusional, talking bad about his wife. The
woman that you claim to know for 20 years, does that ring true?

Ms. O'BRIEN: Not at all. It couldn't be further from the truth. And that's
one reason why I'm speaking to people like you. It really bothers me what
they're saying about her. It could not be further from the truth. She's a
person of tremendous integrity, more so than anyone else I've ever known,
insistent upon honesty and very open. It does not ring true that she would
ever stalk somebody. They were very mutually engaged in this affair. I can't
stress that enough. It was a mutual, committed relationship, and he persuaded
her to believe so. In retrospect, I'm not sure how sincere he was about that.
I don't feel that he's completely sincere about things, knowing what I know,
just in terms of what he says. But, no, she never would have stalk ...

RODRIGUEZ: Have you reached out to her since this started?

Ms. O'BRIEN: Yes, I have. I have, I have.

RODRIGUEZ: And?

Ms. O'BRIEN: I don't think my contact is particularly welcome at this point.
She's in a very difficult place, and I feel that she knows friends like me are
out there thinking about her. I hope she understands that we all care for her
so incredibly much and really want the best for her.

RODRIGUEZ: Do you think that John Edwards is the father of her daughter?

Ms. O'BRIEN: I do.

RODRIGUEZ: Why?

Ms. O'BRIEN: I don't see any other explanation. She would not have a child
with someone that she didn't love, and she loves him.

RODRIGUEZ: She's still in love with him. Does she think this is going to
work out?

Ms. O'BRIEN: I believe she hopes it will. I believe she hopes it will.

RODRIGUEZ: Do you think she will continue to pursue it?

Ms. O'BRIEN: I'm not sure that she has pursued it. I think it's been
mutual. I can't stress that enough. I think she will continue to have love
for this person and feel that she is in a relationship with him as he has led
her to believe.

RODRIGUEZ: Despite the fact that he has a wife? Has she even mentioned
Elizabeth Edwards?

Ms. O'BRIEN: Yes. Mm-hmm.

RODRIGUEZ: What are her feelings when she thinks of Elizabeth Edwards?

Ms. O'BRIEN: Well, she knows how committed -- it's hard to miss how committed
the Edwardses are to one another and how central role Elizabeth plays in Mr.
Edwards' life, so she's aware of him as a married man and as a partner in this
very profound relationship. And she talked sometimes about those things.
She's very aware of it. There are other circumstances -- their affair, their
connection, their love -- that seemed to make it OK and comfortable for her to
pursue the make with him. From the outside it doesn't look like we would make
those same choices; she was comfortable making those choices and confident in
those choices.

RODRIGUEZ: All right, Pigeon O'Brien, thank you.

Ms. O'BRIEN: Thank you.

RODRIGUEZ: Appreciate your time.

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